Lecture Notes 05/14/14 - Language Origins o Dunbar: social Intelligence Hypothesis Vocal grooming (gossip: 1 to more speakers) replaced social grooming (1 to 1 relation) o Historical Linguistics Problem: languages change at different rates No universal list of cognates o Charles Hockett- comparing communicative systems Basic design features of human systems and compare them to non-human systems - Reconstruct communicative habits of the hominid line - Work out the sequence by which that ancestral language became language as hominids became humans - Language Features o Design features of Language- Charles Hockett Set of 13 design features that are shared Benefits of Grooming - 1. Use vocal and auditory channels o Keep the hands free for activities - 2. Broadcast transmission and directional reception o Sounds can be heard and their origin determined - 3. Rapid fading o Sounds do not linger - 4. Interchangeability o Speaker can reproduce any linguistic message that they can understand - 5. Total feedback o Speaker hears everything that they say - 6. Specialization o Speech serves no function except as signals - 7. Semanticity o Sounds have meaning - 8. Arbitrary connections to meanings o No reason that certain words stand for specific things - 9. Discreteness o Difference between range of sounds is functionally absolute - 10. Displacement in time and space o Able to talk about things that are not here in the moment - 11. Productivity (creative)o Capacity to create things that have never been heard or said before and for those things to be able to be understood Ex. Bromance- a close nonsexual friendship between men - 12. Learned in a social context- “traditional transmission” o Humans have cognitive capacity and predisposition to acquire and learn language o But the specifics of any language are learned and taught - 13. Duality of patterning o Ability to change sounds (phonemes) into meaningful word (morphemes) o Same phonemes used to create different morphemes Ex. Dog; god Ex. Cat; tack; act o Where is the line drawn between hominid/animals and humans? Hockett - Language has 13 design features - Animals and humans share 9 - Humans have 4 more o Displacement, productivity, traditional transmission, and duality of patterning - Characteristics of Language o Where is the line drawn between hominids and humans? Burling - Animals and humans have gesture calls - Only humans have language o System of sounds, words, sentences used for communicating - Composed of o Distinct phonological (sounds) and o Syntactic patterning o Duality of patterning (Hockett) - Language is digital - Gesture calls are analog - Digital sounds (Burling) o Language is Discrete Referential Differ from place to place Only humans - Analog signals o Gesture calls are Continuous Emotional Almost the same everywhere - Quotable gestures and vocalizations o Learned gestures o Convey referential meanings o Can be used to lie o Discrete, not continuous - Distinctiveness of human communication o Not in vocal abilities o It is the ability to use language, whether audible or visible to Covey referential and propositional meaning - Knowledge of the meaning behind the sentences and what the sentences refer to in varying contexts - Functions of Language o Can you think of language functions? Reference: “points to” an object that is being referred to Expressive: evoke and/or express feelings and emotions Informative: affirmation or denial (logical) - Ex. “this semester I am enrolled in the Language and Culture class” Directives - “turn off your cell phones” Phatic languages: non-referential, small-talk, elevator talk - Very easy to use verbal and body language (switch between) o A nod vs. “what’s up?” - Helps promote social and cultural bonds - Used the most Performative utterances: language that informs what it performs - “I do” Ceremonial: performance, with mix of other functions - Ritualized manner - Language Variation o Emotions and greetings How do different cultures attach different emotions to a greeting? - Example of greetings: o Italian- “pronto” o Mexican Spanish – “mande” o Latin American- long greetings and goodbyes What makes a joke funny or not? - How do language aesthetics affect the humor in a joke? Giving directions - How can it vary across cultures or backgrounds? Could the languages we speak influence the way we think? - Three basic frames of reference o Relative frame of reference (ego-centric) Left/right/front/back “the clock tower is to the right of Turlington” Even between languages there is even more variation - English: the woman is in front of the tree - Hausa: the woman is behind the tree o Intrinsic frame of reference (object-centric) Involving properties of a landmark “the student is seating at the front of the classroom” o Absolute frame of reference (geo-centric) Cardinal directions (might differ from true norths) “university avenue is north of
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